This
week, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) kicked-off a national dialogue to improve our nation’s readiness
for extreme weather. At the Weather-ReadyNation: AVitalConversation workshop, held in Norman, Okla.,
participants assessed why the nation has become more vulnerable to severe
weather and identified ways to improve the public’s awareness, preparedness and
response to future extreme events.

More
than 1,000 lives have been lost this year to extreme weather, including about 550
from tornadoes. And the economic losses are equally staggering—at least 12
separateweatherdisasters, each with $1 billion
or more in economic losses.

These impacts
moved NOAA’s National Weather Service to launch an initiative called
Weather-Ready Nation. The goal is to improve America’s readiness for weather
events and save more lives and livelihoods. The Norman event is the first in a
series of Weather-Ready Nation activities to be held across the country.

Dr. Lubchenco
called Weather-Ready Nation a shift in mindset. “Severe weather threats can no
longer be looked at as inconveniences, or viewed fatalistically. Victims don’t
have to be caught ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’,” she said.

“Becoming
a Weather-Ready Nation is a shared responsibility from the federal government
to the individual citizen and everyone in between,” said Hayes. “This national
dialogue will help us understand the individual challenges we face, and lead to
coordinated actions that will produce a truly Weather-Ready Nation.”

The
three-day workshop had experts work in small groups tackling topics such as
improving the forecasts and warning system, communicating threats to the
public, increasing community resilience, and identifying gaps in our current
understanding of planning, coordination, and decision-making in a community.

Cataloguing
the variety of devastating weather disasters—from ice storms to extreme
drought to deadly tornadoes—that have plagued her state since her
inauguration a year ago, Gov. Fallin praised NOAA for taking steps to help
America better prepare for severe weather.

NOAA’s
Deputy Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, who participated in the working
groups, spoke about the importance of today’s interactions and idea sharing.
“The surest path to big outcomes are little bets we can make with each other,”
she said.